I recently bought my first pack of cigarettes since moving to LA.
I’m no smoker.
This evening, I pulled one out, walked onto my deck, lit up and stared up at the night.
At first I could see the regulars– Orion’s belt, the Big Dipper, the North Star, Mars. But after a few moments, as I let my eyes adjust, one by one the lights went up around me.
By the seventh drag I was standing under a canopy of muddled white.
In this chaotic and oblivious start to 2010, when no one really knows what’s next, when the news rolls in at uncomfortable speeds and the lists of talking heads about what to expect in the coming decade light up the internet and we all become more engaged with our computer screens and mobile devices and less engaged with each other, sometimes going out and staring at the sky is the answer.
I’m by no means the first to write this, but the pitfalls of being young and inexperienced and starting out in a new career are trumped by the virtues of being pure, untouched, full of ambition, curiosity, wonder. Life hasn’t gotten the best of us yet. We’re not completely caught up in the bullshit yet.
We can still look into the stars and forget about the computers and the new media and the millions out there clamoring over each other to invent and cash in on the next big thing before the world has even taken hold of the things before it.
This year, once every week, I’m going to grab a cigarette (or maybe just an iPod), and I’m going to stare at stars.
That’s my resolution.
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